[USS Chimera] SD 240908.26 UNITY. Duty Log. RAdm Guzman / Cmdr Summers

rangi.summers@mojwap.sk wrote to chimera@ucip.org:

=== Shane & Rangi's Quarters, SB 234: UNITY
===

Happy with finally both parents around, Martin fell fast
asleep. His head on his mother's belly, his feet on his
father's knees. It was an image of a peaceful harmony and
god knows that the little boy deserved it after all those
dreadful events.

The Qashqai arrived at UNITY late at night and first duty
matters were still hours away. It was quite fitting that the
first thing to do on UNITY was to head back ... home.

"I am glad we are finally home" Shane said quietly, not
wanting to wake up his son.

Rangi was looking down at the sleeping child, gently
stroking his hair with a touch as soft as a feather. When
Shane spoke, she turned her head in his direction.

" Yes.." she answered, equally quietly then looked back at
their son.
" I miss him so much when I'm away." she said "...and I miss
you as well when I'm here and you're not." She had looked at
him again as she spoke and gave a rueful smile. " But as you
say, it's good to be home and together." She reached to
touch his hand and Martin stirred a little. "Do you want to
carry him to bed?" she asked.

Shane smiled and whispered: "That's some assignment". Those
having small kids know the trade, but Shane was quite 'new'
to the father role and it was not easy to carry a child like
Martin and while not waking him. With a small nod, Shane
carefully reached for the little cub and took him on his
arms. So far so good – Martin was still asleep.

They stood up and but before a step was taken Martin half
opened his eyes then closed them again with a long audible
sigh. Both his parents froze on the spot thinking that he
would wake but Martin merely turned his head to Shanes chest
and showed no sign of waking.

All was well and so they proceeded to the bedroom.

Walking after Rangi, Shane arrived in Martin's room, where
the bed was already unsheathed. Placing the young boy
carefully into the bed, Shane smiled at Rangi and watched
her to finish the process.

She pulled the coverlet over the little boy, bent to kiss
him and whispered a goodnight.

Just as Shane bend over his son to kiss him good night, Zaba
– the Frog fell on the floor with an unmistakable sound.
Again, both adults froze expecting the little boy to wake up
but were lucky again.

Rangi bent to retrieve the well loved frog and tucked him
beside Martin then linking hands with Shane they moved to
the door and returned to the main room.

" ...and now I'd like to know what's going on.."she said
eyeing Shane. "Although you look better now, when I came
aboard Qashqai you looked decidedly unwell. Have you been
ill?"

Shane looked at Rangi, considering his words. Should he tell
her about the poison? It's been a masterpiece performed by
Tal'shiar and they almost succeeded in poisoning the Task
Force Commander to his death.

"I've been eating Klingon gagh – worms, alive" he said.

Rangi stopped in the tracks and stared at him.
" Worms?" she asked, her voice a few notes above its usual
key. "Why in the worlds would you be eating Klingon Gagh?"

Smiling he replied: "Well, I had to show our Klingon allies
that Starfleet means business. I couldn't think of
anything better and was stupid enough to eat that raw worms
Not the most clever idea I had"

" No it wasn't" she replied not able to hide her amusement
and continued on towards the sofa.
"Tomorrow morning I want to see you in the infirmary. I'll
have a look at your stomach!"

She shook her head at the thought of the worms and flopped
down on the sofa and watched him take a place beside her.
"They must have made you really ill." she added.

"Hmm" he said, "to be honest, it's not that. When I took the
Qashqai to get here, I was too careless, thinking that
Harker's plan was JUST to lure me our of UNITY, but in fact
a side twist of his was the try to poison me through food."
Looking at Rangi's expression he added swiftly: "But
obviously he did not succeed."

Her lips parted in an unspoken word and twisting round a
little on the cushions she stared at him again.
"What poison?!" she demanded and frowned deeply. " What
else are you not telling me?"

"I don't know" he replied. "I am not a doctor. You can ask
in the sickbay".
Shane was not happy about the course theconversation was
heading to and tried to ease the situation: "That's all,
honest. I beamed down on the planet and encountered Harker.
He tried to kill me, but I killed him first ... but did you
expect anything else after all the effort he invested in
kidnapping you and Martin?"

She shook her head, a troubled expression across her face.
" But you have guards.." she began, frowning at the floor
but raised her eyes to his again." ..why did they leave you
alone?"
She raised her handbefore he could reply " No..dont tell
me..you left them behind didnt you?...Shane....."

"Ah, come on, Rangi, you suffered in Romulan hands as well.
Our son was kidnapped and both of you should be killed. Of
course I did everything possible to stop Harker. I love you,
I love our son and the security of both of you is TOP in my
priorities."

She gave a weak smile . " I know it is. I'm sorry...I didnt
mean to nag you. It's just that..."
She stopped for what point would there be if she told him
she wanted him to take more care? She answered her own
question { None}

" I know. " she said softly and moved from her postion to
lean her head against his chest and laying an arm across
his body. She sighed.

" I can't help but worry. " she said soon afterwards. " It
didnt used to be like this..well...I suppose it was but now
we have Martin it all seems so much more intense somehow."

Shane nodded: "Exactly. Both if us are officers and know our
danger, but Martin is just a kid. He's no soldier, not even
an adult. He's a small child and he deserves a happy
childhood. That's what I hate about fighting ... those
that are innocent suffer the most"

Rangi knew the weight of responsibilty that Shane carried
with him twentyfour hours a day. She knew too how he felt
the loss of crew under his command and how he was aware of
the civilians whose welfare depended on his judgement.
She did not want him to think of this now, for in a few
hours he would be back on duty, not that he ever truly left
it in reality.
She sat up and looked at him, seeing clearly the signs of
worry and tiredness not to mention the after effects of
eating the gagh and a dose of poison.

She gave him a soft smile and leaned forward to kiss him.
The gentle kiss became two, then three, then four, each
lasting a little longer than the one before and each growing
in feeling.
"Let's go to bed." she whispered then teasing added : " You
must be very tired." and she laughed when his answering
expression plainly asked: "You think so?"

***

" Computer......soft light..." Rangis voice was croaky from
sleep as she propped herself up on her arm and reached with
the other to touch her combadge.She screwed her eyes tight
shut as the computer obeyed the order and peered at the
chrono which told her it was 3.42.
Her hand slapped down on the combadge " Summers." she said
endeavouring to throw off the fingers of sleep that would
have dragged her back to dreams.

A voice asked for Rear Admiral Guzman.
Rangi glanced back at the figure lying beside her. " He's
sleeping." she replied quietly " May I help you?" She
stifled a yawn.

It was imperitive that the Rear Admiral be told of an
explosion the voice said.
" Where? when?" Rangi asked becoming instantly alert.

" In the Explosives Cargo Bay" the voice replied,"... twelve
minutes ago and sensors detected an initial explosion from a
grenade of non Federation design, multple casualties."

It was a careful way of saying there were intruders on board
but she asked no more questions.
" A moment." she said and sitting upright, turned to the
sleeping man beside her.

She leaned forward, placed a hand on his arm and shook it.
" Shane...Shane wake up."

He murmured something unintelligible and swatted her hand
feebly in an attempt to make her stop.
" Shane..." she urged, persisting with the shaking " ..wake
up...there's a problem."

*** End Log ***

Rear Admiral Shane Guzman
SSF 1st Task Force Commanding officer
&
Commander Rangi Summers
Med. Adv 1st Task Force
CMO SB Unity

[USS Chimera] 240908.26 |Bravo| Duty Log; Cadet Elbrum

-= USS Chimera =-
 
   Leaving the security briefing, Andrus could not believe it. He was already being sent on an away mission to blow the shit out of romulans. He was pretty happy about that, but still shook his head in disbelief.
 
   He passed by the armory and picked up a type II Hand phaser. He set it to heavy stun for the time being. He tapped frantically on his PADD to finish the report he had for Cortez. Essentially the second team lead by Major Shao was, althought pretty heavily, armed with Starfleet weaponry, which was not wrong. These guy had not liked the idea of getting the crates of weapons double checked by a cadet, but that is what life in starfleet was about.
 
   After dropping the PADD on the desk of his department yeoman, Andrus returned to the armory, this time to get his gear for the mission. He was handed a phaser rifle, demolition charges, combat fatigues and body armor.  He had extra energy clip for his phaser rifle like he never thought he would. The academy was a far way off.
 
then he joined the guys for some combat training. It was vital training and he was not used to the security officers as they where not used to him on their team. So he would spend the following two hours rehersing tactical movement, close quarter combat and demolition manipulations. He loved those trainings and he was about to start, he smiled.
 
Cadet Andrus Elbrum
Security Officer
USS Chimera
 
  

---

Attention all humans. We are your photos. Free us.

[USS Chimera] SD 240908.26 SB UNITY. Personal log: Commander Summers

rangi.summers@mojwap.sk wrote to chimera@ucip.org:

*** CO's Quarters * USS Quashqai
***

Rangi bent her head forward and rubbed the towel over her
wet hair.
She had showered and changed into casual clothes, using
Shanes quarters as her own. He, she knew, was in his Ready
Room no doubt pondering over the latest developements as
Qashqai sped home towards Unity. They would arrive within
the hour and then, she hoped, they would have at least a
little time to relax.

She had spent the last few hours completing the postmortems
and writing a report and expected that Shane would be
reading now.
The seventeen bodies were all cleared to be returned to
their familes, each identified from DNA with their cause of
death carefully detailed.
Malnutrition had featured widely but it was the brain damage
caused by the implanted devices that accounted for most.
Some of the victims still had the devices in place and Bren
Ohmsford would be staying with the Quasar to investigate
them further.

Rangi dropped the towel into the recycle bin and lifting the
damp hair with her fingers, walked into the bedroom and
picked up a hairbrush from its place in front of the mirror
and sat on the edge of the bed.
She was sure that Bren had been avoiding her although to be
fair, he had a huge amount to do.

{It must be hard for him to be in the place where Liev died}
she thought, beginning to stroke the brush through her hair.
She had thought he might have asked about it but in a way,
was glad that he hadn't. Instead he had buried himself in
work from the moment they arrived and had not spent more
than a few minutes in her company at any one time.

She shook her hair back then paused, seeing her reflection
in the mirror. She slowly lowered the brush until it rested
on her knee then looked away, frowning in thought.

Shane had agreed to take the three bodies back to Unity.
Two had been found on Padassa in stasis chambers and the
other Shane had held on Qashqai. There were two Nicholas
Harkers and one Samantha Palmer.

It was a mystery because the two Harkers were both 'real'.
Tests had proved it.
Finding Samantha Palmers body had been a second surprise,
for the woman had died aboard Chimera some time ago.

{Two identical couples?} she asked herself and began to
brush her hair again with slow strokes.

She had found only one difference in the two bodies of
Harker....age.

At first Rangi had suspected that time spent in the stasis
chambers accounted for it but that didnt prove to be the
case for the other Harker, the one Shane had killed, had at
some point received some sort of cell regeneration therapy.
It would need more detailed scanning but at the moment,
Rangi believed him to be at least six years or possibly even
a decade older than the body found on Padassa.
He had been the one who had held Martin and herself captive.

Major Kinn however had found data that showed the other
Harker had been dead for just over four years and that
Samantha had been dead for three.
Rangi intended to run her own analysis on Unity and compare
it with the data that Giella had found.

One thing was certain, the pair had died in the same way.
Something had caused a fast cessastion of higher brain
function, though what remained unclear.

Rangi stood up and, laying the brush back in its place,
glanced at her overall appearance pulling the neck of her
shirt straight and flicking at her hair on the left side.

Once back on Unity she would search out Samantha Palmers
case and read the report Mercedes Carpenter, the then CMO,
had detailed. The answer might lie in there.

*** End Log ***

Commander Rangi Summers
Med. Adv 1st Task Force
CMO SB Unity

[USS Chimera] [ALPHA] SD240908.25 | Shooting Stars | 2LT R. Winters | PL-E

=/-\= Norris VIII =/-\=

 

Location: Low Orbit, Norris VIII-A

Time: 0330 Hours, Federation Standard Time

The terminator between night and day was barely visible in the distance as Dick Winters fell through the atmosphere of the tundra-covered moon of Norris VIII. Below him, past the growing flame of reentry beginning surround the small plasma shield protecting him from the vacuum, Dick could see the cold, barren surface of the moon, characterized by jagged mountain ranges and long, empty plains. No where below could he see any sign of flowing water. The planet itself, a large Class-J orb just within the systems zone of habitation, was behind the moon and completely eclipsed by the moon itself.

 

Around him, spread across a relatively small area, were the soldiers of Easy Company's First Platoon. His sergeant was to his left, with the squads spread out around and behind in a roughly diamond-like pattern. All of them looked like small meteors falling through the atmosphere. All of them were silent as the surface continued to grow before them, swallowing up the stars as the fell.

 

At fifty klicks Dick noticed a change as the flare of his plasma shield, operated by the microprocessor embedded in his jumpsuit, began to dissipate as it began to reconfigure itself to slow him down before he entered troposphere. Below him the planet's surface had begun falling into darkness as the platoon soared through the twilight of the terminator. At thirty klicks the plasma field changed again, this time into something resembling a large, flattened mushroom, causing a great amount of drag and slowing Dick to a much safer rate of descent. Finally, at two klicks from the surface Dick reached up and pulled the ripcord to his tripolymer chute and began to drift towards their target landing zone.

 

As soon as the plasma field dropped, the bitter cold began to bite at Dick's extremities. If not for the insulated bodywear the Marines were wearing for their hike through the snow, the Lieutenant was certain they would have frozen to death in a matter of minutes.

 

"Listen up!" shouted Captain Spier's voice through a small speaker in the weather-resistant headpiece Dick was wearing. "We've got to get ten klicks through these hills. There will be no more cover than rocks and small shrubs, so we're gonna keep chatter to a minimum. Platoon Leaders, I want you to keep an active comm with me. Have your soldiers reconfigure their comms for short-range only. Anything they find you can report back to me."

 

=/-\= Four Hours Later =/-\=

 

On an average day, Dick could probably have made the then-kilometer march in no more than two and a half hours, given a good surface and no hurry. But when laden down with cold-weather gear, weapons and ammunition, and personal rations, the Company took just over four hours to reach their destination. As they huddled behind a high ridge overlooking the installation, which was tucked into a small valley at the foot of a mountain rage, Captain Spiers and his platoon leaders laid at the top, observing the Romulan center, a vast installation consisting of several low-built, snow-covered buildings; it was assumed most of the establishment existed underground. The only one that stood taller than two or three stories was a building that appeared to be about seven stories tall, and had a large, domed top: the communications array.

 

Apparently the Romulans thought the need for a wall around their compand was moot, given it's location.

 

Fortunately for Starfleet, the Romulans had not expecting the men of Easy Company to be the ones knocking on their door.

 

"Alright, guys, here's how this is going to work," Captain Spiers said, his voice once again coming from the headset. The strong, howling winds through the hills and mountains had made actual verbal communications an impossiblity. At least until they entered the compound. "I want Second and Third Platoons to move around to the west; if you can get into one of the buildings and force your way into the lower levels, we can gain access to the power generators and shut this place down. With the defenses down we can call in an airstrike."

 

The Captain turned and looked at Dick, "I want First Platoon to move on the comm array. You're gonna have to fight your way into, and up the interior to get to the array's control room. Secure it by whatever means necessary. If Second and Third are unsucessful, I want you to destroy that building. If we can't capture it, I'd rather not leave it in Rommie hands. And Fourth Platoon will split by squads. I want heavy gunner crews with each of the other platoons."

Glancing back at the other two platoon leaders the Company Commander asked, "Any questions?"

 

T'Laissa, the Vulcan leader of Second Platoon spoke, "Which group will you be accompanying?"

 

Spiers looked back at her and replied, "I'll be going with you, Lieutenant. Cutting power to this place is prioriety. If we can shut down the turrets we can get reinforcements. And I trust First can secure that building without me looking over their shoulders." He turned to Dick, "You think you can handle this?"

 

For a moment the young Lieutenant's anxiety threatened to peak, but after reassuring gazes from his compatriots he gave a single nod and replied, "It's as good as done, sir..."

--
Second Lieutenant Richard Winters
Platoon Leader, First Platoon, E "Easy" Company
2nd Battalion, 1st Regiment, 1st MEF